So, as much as Citizens United has changed the electoral landscape, its effects on the presidential race alone are likely to be muted. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the case for smaller congressional and state congressional races, where less is known about candidates’ records.

But perhaps recognizing that government has the important role of not just supporting, but rather getting everyone to the same starting point — Tocqueville’s “equality of conditions” — will dispel the notion that government is incompatible with individual effort and a thriving civil society.

Just this week, the Tax Justice Network published a report claiming that between $21 and $31 trillion of global financial wealth is “invested” in tax-free havens. That’s more than the GDP of the United States, China, and Japan combined.

Meritocracy has, to a small extent, allowed elites to emerge and consolidate their positions of power, sans the moral imperative of the generations past. Yet meritocracy certainly shouldn’t be blamed for other corrupting influences like unlimited campaign contributions.

In today’s political environment, expediency often takes precedence over good policy making. But the sooner we realize that there isn’t a magic bullet for fixing the economy, the closer we’ll get to fixing it.

Although we may not be sure whether what we know is absolutely right, we should in the spirit of civic-republicanism still strive to seek, critically evaluate, and express our beliefs. My generation cannot afford to ignore the political process.

The problem lies instead in a tax code that is ill-equipped to combat today’s highly mobile capital caused by technological advances. Instead of being put to work through domestic reinvestment, capital is stockpiled overseas. Furthermore, tax competition both between states and globally continues to drive tax rates downwards and exacerbates the problem of insufficient revenue.